Two things about this (other than, yes, people that reported on it should have done a better job):

1) None of the listed publications that ran the story are sources I typically go to for trustworthy tech (much less gaming) news. So nothing has really changed here.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

Stuff like this is why I avoid sites that pander to the rumor mongering crowds. It's impossible to believe anything and at best is just wishful thinking. Until someone gets on stage at a press conference I don't believe any word of it.

On a side note, how funny would it be if this made up rumor turned out to be true? I love the idea of that.

@darthslughorn: The "actual" press? You mean the guys and gals that have spent the last week wondering how they all ran with the Manti Te'o girlfriend story using each other as corroboration (save those few that started to double check her, didn't get very far and said: "Nah, it's probably okay.") THAT actual press?

Fact. Everyone fucks up and (more often than most reporters would like) getting a hot story out first wins out over that double check that should be done ("Hahahaha! Such old news. I read it on X site 15 minutes ago. You suck.")

Two things about this (other than, yes, people that reported on it should have done a better job):

1) None of the listed publications that ran the story are sources I typically go to for trustworthy tech (much less gaming) news. So nothing has really changed here.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

I'm not sure if that site has the emails there, but someone posted the emails between Rob and him, and the guy who made up all of the lies was getting increasingly butthurt when Rob would refuse to believe him. His general consensus was "You have to believe me! I say it's true!" and called him out for Rob calling HIM out on his bullshit.

This reminds me of when that guy made up the Sony Nexus phone, just shows how far the enthusiast press is from the actual press.

http://anatomyofahoax.tumblr.com/

Between how the media handled these recent shootings, that football girlfriend thing, and now all the minor bullshit at the Presidential Inauguration, I'm pretty sure all kinds of "journalism" is fucked. If there are articles/programs to run and money to be made, the press will go for it.

Why are people surprised by this? Do you guys not realize how absolutely fucking lazy journalists are, these days? Does anyone think journalists do actual investigative work anymore? Because they don't. I didn't need this dumb little "hoax" to illustrate that. Fuck, there are actual websites where people can register as an expert in a field. They don't even necessarily have to prove that they are one in any way, whatsoever, either. And then reporters who are too lazy to go get a quote for their story from a real source somewhere just log into this site, pay a few bucks, and find an "expert" that they can quote in their story. YES, THEY ARE THAT FUCKING LAZY.

Go for it. You can sign up as an expert. I'm an expert in three different subject. Only one of them which I actually know anything about. I've been quoted twice, so far, in actual publications. It's fun to just see how far you can fuck with people and they'll buy into your bullshit, because they're too lazy to do real journalism, themselves.

Why are people surprised by this? Do you guys not realize how absolutely fucking lazy journalists are, these days? Does anyone think journalists do actual investigative work anymore? Because they don't. I didn't need this dumb little "hoax" to illustrate that. Fuck, there are actual websites where people can register as an expert in a field. They don't even necessarily have to prove that they are one in any way, whatsoever, either. And then reporters who are too lazy to go get a quote for their story from a real source somewhere just log into this site, pay a few bucks, and find an "expert" that they can quote in their story. YES, THEY ARE THAT FUCKING LAZY.

Go for it. You can sign up as an expert. I'm an expert in three different subject. Only one of them which I actually know anything about. I've been quoted twice, so far, in actual publications. It's fun to just see how far you can fuck with people and they'll buy into your bullshit, because they're too lazy to do real journalism, themselves.

What sort of pedigree do these publications that quoted you have, though? As someone who works for a relatively major newspaper, I've never heard of and certainly have never used this service. Granted, I'm not a journalist on the field breaking news, but I'd think I would have at least heard of such a thing through the grapevine.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

Yeah I thought it was funny how he called Rob Crossley out for not wanting to run the rumors without evidence, even though the whole point of the blog was based on game journalists running rumors with no evidence. Here is the whole conversation they had (taken from Rob Crossley's twitter):

If you read through these you can see that Rob remained professional the whole time. It was this Joe guy who was the one acting unprofessional and "repugnant". Joe just got all pissy because he got called on his bullshit.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

Yeah I thought it was funny how he called Rob Crossley out for not wanting to run the rumors without evidence, even though the whole point of the blog was based on game journalists running rumors with no evidence. Here is the whole conversation they had (taken from Rob Crossley's twitter):

If you read through these you can see that Rob remained professional the whole time. It was this Joe guy who was the one acting unprofessional and "repugnant". Joe just got all pissy because he got called on his bullshit.

Why are people surprised by this? Do you guys not realize how absolutely fucking lazy journalists are, these days? Does anyone think journalists do actual investigative work anymore? Because they don't. I didn't need this dumb little "hoax" to illustrate that. Fuck, there are actual websites where people can register as an expert in a field. They don't even necessarily have to prove that they are one in any way, whatsoever, either. And then reporters who are too lazy to go get a quote for their story from a real source somewhere just log into this site, pay a few bucks, and find an "expert" that they can quote in their story. YES, THEY ARE THAT FUCKING LAZY.

Go for it. You can sign up as an expert. I'm an expert in three different subject. Only one of them which I actually know anything about. I've been quoted twice, so far, in actual publications. It's fun to just see how far you can fuck with people and they'll buy into your bullshit, because they're too lazy to do real journalism, themselves.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. I didn't try signing up but do they actually do any kind of filtering of sorts to determine your competency that you are actually an "expert"?

This was done a few years ago by someone on Cheap Ass Gamer, who suckered in gaming press (including Kotaku) on a rumor of an "XBox Pure" console. The way Kotaku reacted all butthurt was hilarious... saying that "CAG's reputation" was forever damaged - even though it was just a user using the blog feature on that site and not something posted on the news feed of the actual site or by any authority figure on the site.

No different than if someone here posted a bunch of shit on their blog and sent it to Kotaku, who reported it and then called out Giant Bomb as a whole for it. Hilarious.

Why are people surprised by this? Do you guys not realize how absolutely fucking lazy journalists are, these days? Does anyone think journalists do actual investigative work anymore? Because they don't. I didn't need this dumb little "hoax" to illustrate that. Fuck, there are actual websites where people can register as an expert in a field. They don't even necessarily have to prove that they are one in any way, whatsoever, either. And then reporters who are too lazy to go get a quote for their story from a real source somewhere just log into this site, pay a few bucks, and find an "expert" that they can quote in their story. YES, THEY ARE THAT FUCKING LAZY.

Go for it. You can sign up as an expert. I'm an expert in three different subject. Only one of them which I actually know anything about. I've been quoted twice, so far, in actual publications. It's fun to just see how far you can fuck with people and they'll buy into your bullshit, because they're too lazy to do real journalism, themselves.

WHAT. THE. FUCK. I didn't try signing up but do they actually do any kind of filtering of sorts to determine your competency that you are actually an "expert"?

A friend of mine works for a very large paper in Oregon and turned me onto it when it first launched, because she was so astonished at the audacity of it and back then, there wasn't really any requirement for anything. I'm not sure if that has changed. As far as I'm aware, it's basically between you and the potential people using you as a source to determine your credentials and knowledge. You could cite things you've written or sites you run or degrees you have or experience in a profession and so on, but it's not like they actually say "these three guys are our chemistry guys and here's a photocopy of their degrees and the journals they've been peer-reviewed in". It's mostly a go-to when someone for the AP or something says "shit, I need two quotes to finish out this story".

Oh, also, they introduced a payment system, so it's not free. A lot of people who are "experts" actually use this as a way to bolster their reputation and career. Sucker a reporter into thinking you know anything about anything. Point to a few bullshit sources online or in your professional life. Then after they quote you as an expert, point to those articles and your being sourced in them as evidence that you are an expert, when marketing yourself elsewhere. For example - claiming you're a "social media expert/guru". Cite some articles you write on your blog, perhaps. Then you're quoted in a couple articles as an expert. Now go back to your site and link to those articles, citing you as a quoted expert. Now you use that citation to back up your credibility when commenting on the internet. Or publishing shit on your blog. Or going out to get a "social networking/guru" job. Or when submitting to do freelance articles for a magazine as an "expert". It's kind of a funny circle.

I don't know that it's always abused. I'm sure there's a lot of legitimate use through it -- but it's also still very lazy and totally prone to manipulation both in theory and in practice.

@Branthog: From the looks of things, it doesn't appear shady but I do agree with you it just makes the process of appearing to be a "guru" a bit too easy and I do agree with you it is lazy. We can't really know though since we don't have first-hand experience in using the site but in relation to this thread this makes your earlier explanation very plausible.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

Yeah I thought it was funny how he called Rob Crossley out for not wanting to run the rumors without evidence, even though the whole point of the blog was based on game journalists running rumors with no evidence. Here is the whole conversation they had (taken from Rob Crossley's twitter):

If you read through these you can see that Rob remained professional the whole time. It was this Joe guy who was the one acting unprofessional and "repugnant". Joe just got all pissy because he got called on his bullshit.

That last email says it all, Joe couldn't understand why Rob had a hard time believing in Joe's fake source and gets all pissy about it.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

Yeah I thought it was funny how he called Rob Crossley out for not wanting to run the rumors without evidence, even though the whole point of the blog was based on game journalists running rumors with no evidence. Here is the whole conversation they had (taken from Rob Crossley's twitter):

If you read through these you can see that Rob remained professional the whole time. It was this Joe guy who was the one acting unprofessional and "repugnant". Joe just got all pissy because he got called on his bullshit.

That last email says it all, Joe couldn't understand why Rob had a hard time believing in Joe's fake source and gets all pissy about it.

It wasn't like a whole bunch of people fell for it. The ones that did actually weren't even gaming-specific outlets, with the exception of VG247 and NowGamer, and those are hardly major outlets. Turns out that he didn't get the results he wanted, but wanted to keep the narrative alive that herp derp, all journalists are lazy! He became the monster he so despises.

Two things about this (other than, yes, people that reported on it should have done a better job):

1) None of the listed publications that ran the story are sources I typically go to for trustworthy tech (much less gaming) news. So nothing has really changed here.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

yeh i was just thinking that, he called the author out and in return the author made snide and repugnant comments about him, however professional Rob Crossey is or isn't, in this case he is in the right

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

Yeah I thought it was funny how he called Rob Crossley out for not wanting to run the rumors without evidence, even though the whole point of the blog was based on game journalists running rumors with no evidence. Here is the whole conversation they had (taken from Rob Crossley's twitter):

If you read through these you can see that Rob remained professional the whole time. It was this Joe guy who was the one acting unprofessional and "repugnant". Joe just got all pissy because he got called on his bullshit.

Did the websites report it as Rumors or Facts? If they reported it as rumors no big deal, because that is what they were. If they said it was facts that is a little worse but still you even see stuff like this in the mainstream news. They don't get everything right 100% of time and if you think that you should examine your thinking.

Could have been an interesting think piece on modern day journalism except a few things here.

His original email starts off terribly. The moment he says pinch of salt I'd have deleted it. If you don't even know as simple an expression as "grain of salt" you're not a professional in the know about something (meaning, in short, you have no reason to trust what I'm about to say and I admit that- because a grain of sale is meaningless, a pinch of salt is a HELL of a lot more salt... god... sorry that really bugged me).

He makes interesting points, all known already to any adult who reads modern coverage of anything (like me) then goes on to call someone for not buying into his BS, because he "knows" they spread lies all the time. How does he know that? Some of these sites do actually have sources. If his is real then he knows you are full of shit. How could anyone but a 16 year old even argue that beyond saying "You know what, you got me. Well done. I'm doing an experiment and you are the first to call me out on it. Sorry if I wasted your time but I am trying to prove a point so let's keep this between us until my silly report about games journalists is finished. Cheers."

I see nothing wrong with what Rob did or said and he was completely professional.

I guess what I am saying is, there are good ways to go about this and he fucked it up and lost all credibility. I don't believe hes an adult and if he is he is one that works a fast food job part time and mooches off whoever is unable to kick him out for long periods of time. Or some other form of asshole that makes no meaningful contribution to reality.

I feel like I got to personal there. That was probably bad. Sorry about that. This is all really dumb and a wasted thought experiment, which is the real crime here.

The moment he says pinch of salt I'd have deleted it. If you don't even know as simple an expression as "grain of salt" you're not a professional in the know about something (meaning, in short, you have no reason to trust what I'm about to say and I admit that- because a grain of sale is meaningless, a pinch of salt is a HELL of a lot more salt... god... sorry that really bugged me).

The expression is pinch of salt where I'm from. Odd how people from different countries and even regions talk differently isn't it?

@Poyples: what does it mean where you come from (I have been all over the world, never heard it said this way so I am genuinely curious)?

To take something said with a pinch of salt is to consider it with doubt. It means exactly the same as the grain of salt comment, which I have never heard in my life before, and so I imagine it's just what is said in the UK in it's place.

The moment he says pinch of salt I'd have deleted it. If you don't even know as simple an expression as "grain of salt" you're not a professional in the know about something (meaning, in short, you have no reason to trust what I'm about to say and I admit that- because a grain of sale is meaningless, a pinch of salt is a HELL of a lot more salt... god... sorry that really bugged me).

The expression is pinch of salt where I'm from. Odd how people from different countries and even regions talk differently isn't it?

Two things about this (other than, yes, people that reported on it should have done a better job):

1) None of the listed publications that ran the story are sources I typically go to for trustworthy tech (much less gaming) news. So nothing has really changed here.

2) His update at the bottom, where he calls out CVG's Rob Crossley with being "the most repugnant person I’ve ever known in the gaming world"? Totally ridiculous. This guy lied about having inside information, was called out on the fact that he was lying, and got mad at how he was called out. That is pretty repugnant, to me. Good on Rob for recognizing the "leak" for what it is and not running it. (He also posted images of his e-mail exchange with this guy on his Twitter.)

I agree this guys proved nothing. It is like yelling "fire in a movie" theater and then screaming at the fire department for showing up.

There was no fire, but it is their job to show up anyway. That is how game games business works too, when some LIES and say they work for Microsoft people will report the information as rumor. They should show up and look around and report rumors, because why should they expect someone to elaborately fabricate a lie. Same for the firemen, they shoudl have to deal with jokers playing pranks...it wastes people time...it proves nothing.

Should those sites have fact-checked? Sure, they should have tried to confirm it. Does this proved games journalism is broken? Not al all, he failed to get most major site reported a word he said, in fact.